


Jet Pack Blues

by VileVenom



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Demons, Gen, Lewis is missing, Pre-Hellbent, Tumblr Prompt, i haven't tagged anything in a while can you tell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 09:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16406006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VileVenom/pseuds/VileVenom
Summary: Tumblr prompt: This might be kinda dark bUT what about something were Arthur considered making a deal with a demon/creature to bring Lewis back to life? Something like, "your friends' happiness in exchange for your soul" kinda deal, idk. You can decide if he goes through with it or not, and the timeline of the story (if it's going on right at that moment of if we are dealing with an aftermath)Arthur had to stop listening to Vivi.





	Jet Pack Blues

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in an hour at 3am, so please let me know if there are any glaring mistakes that need to be fixed.

Arthur really had to stop listening to Vivi. Between the weird cave incident where Lewis went missing, the haunted purple mansion where he was nearly killed by a ghost, and now this strange wilderness hike in some creepy woods at dusk to look for some spirit or something that several people had claimed to see. Arthur was pretty sure she would be the literal death of him.

Which was wonderfully exemplified when his foot caught on a root as he was trying to catch up with the blue haired girl and her dog, and he promptly stumbled and fell. Somehow, in the blur of motion that was him trying to catch himself before he hit the ground, he managed to careen himself to the edge of a gully, falling spectacularly into the water with a splash and a sputter. He heaved himself up into a sitting position, shaking his head like a dog to try and get some of the murky water out of his hair, before pushing himself to his feet unsteadily. Once up, he shook his arm quickly, hoping any of the water that had managed to get into it would drain out before any major damage could be done.

“That was a nasty fall.”

Arthur jerked his head up to look around for the source of the lilting voice that spoke, taking a quick and startled step back as his eyes landed on a girl, not much younger than himself, who almost seemed to emanate an ethereal yellow glow. “Uh,” he said intelligently as the girl smiled down at him from the edge of the gully, opposite from where he’d fallen in, “Yeah. It wasn’t exactly fun.”

The girl laughed, the sound entrancing in its softness as she crouched down and offered Arthur a hand. “Would you like some help up? It’s not an easy climb when the sides are wet.”

Arthur nodded emphatically as he shuffled close to the girl, reaching his good hand up to take hers, using his robotic arm for leverage against the slippery embankment. “Please and thank you. I don’t think my friends noticed I fell, and staying down here doesn’t sound productive.”

“Not particularly,” the girl hummed, hoisting Arthur out of the ditch. He chose, for the moment, to ignore her apparent above average strength as he barely used any of his own to get himself out of the gully. He was mostly just happy to be out of the water, and the girl seemed friendly enough. Even if up closer to her, she really did seem to be letting off a soft glow. Oh.

“Say,” Arthur began, wiping some of the mud off his shirt and vest once he was steady on his own two feet once again and had released the girls hand, “You wouldn’t…happen to be a ghost, would you?”

The girl stared at him for a long moment, before laughing quietly and brushing some of her long silvery hair over her shoulder. “Well, no. Though I suppose I am something close. Perceptive, aren’t you?”

“Kinda hard to miss the whole glowing thing you’ve got going on, I’ll be honest,” Arthur said with a lopsided smile, gesturing to the air around the girl as she demurred and clasped her hands in front of herself.

“I suppose that’s true,” the girl hummed, nodding a little as she watched Arthur with curiosity. A few moments passed as they sort of just looked at each other awkwardly, before Arthur couldn’t take it anymore and let out an awkward laugh and shuffled his feet.

“I-My friends, they’re-”

“You’ve lost something,” the girl interrupted Arthur bluntly, tilting her head.

Arthur stopped, his hands mid-air as he’d been gesturing towards where Mystery and Vivi had wandered. “I-what?”

“Something precious to you,” the girl added, nodding slightly as she took a step towards the blonde. “You’ve lost it, and can’t find it. No…not an it. A them. A someone.”

“How do you know that?” Arthur asked, his feet rooted to the ground despite wanting desperately to move away as the girl moved closer to him. He could feel his heart begin to race against his ribs as she approached.

“It’s written on your soul. Sorrow. Regret. Longing. Tell tale signs of loss,” she explained, the smile on her lips that once made her seem friendly to Arthur now making his hair stand on end. “I can help you find them. If you want.”

This gave the blonde pause, his entire demeanor suddenly deflating as his eyes grew wide. “You can?”

“Of course,” the girl nodded, “For a small price. Nothing can be gained without something given in exchange, after all.” She offered Arthur her hand, her smile still unnerving, but it was the least of Arthur’s concerns as he stared down at her hand. She was offering him a way to find Lewis. His search would be over, and he’d finally know his friend was safe. And maybe, with that, Vivi’s memories would come back and they could finally solve the Mystery of what happened in that god forsaken cave.

Hesitantly Arthur raised his good hand, trembling slightly as he began to reach for her proffered one. “What kind of price are we talking?” he asked, still at least somewhat aware that this was not a creature of the physical plain, and he should at least be somewhat cautious. Not everything was always as it seemed, after all.

“Oh, just your soul,” the girl tittered, her smile widening slightly as she reached for Arthur’s hand.

“My soul?!” Arthur quickly retracted his hand, clutching it to his chest as his legs finally began to work, stepping a sharp step back.

“Oh, only once you’re done with it,” the girl sighed, waving her hand through the air, looking exasperated at Arthur’s sudden mistrust, “You know, in seventy years or so. So long from now you won’t even remember me, but plenty of time to spend with your special person. What do you say?” She offered her hand out again, her smile sharp as Arthur stared down at it.

His soul to find Lewis. His soul to bring his best friend back. To stop his searching. To maybe finally sleep easy again. And perhaps she was right. Seventy years was a long time, after all. Wouldn’t having Lewis back and seeing Vivi smile at something other than the supernatural again be worth it? They deserved happiness, and if Arthur could give it, shouldn’t he? He swallowed thickly, lifting his good hand and slowly began to reach out to her.

“ARTHUR!” Vivi’s voice screeched from the trees, a blue blur accompanying the yell as a bat swung through the air, causing the glowing girl to duck and scramble back. Arthur jumped nearly a foot in the air, very nearly stumbling back into the gully but somehow managing to keep his balance as Mystery suddenly darted out from a nearby bush and stood in front of him, snarling.

“What’s are you doing?!” Arthur shouted, panicked as he watched Vivi continue to swing at the girl, who in turn hissed and jumped back a few feet. His chance at getting Lewis back-!

“She’s a demon, Arthur!” Vivi snapped, scowling as she barely missed the girl, hitting a tree instead, “She’s what we’ve been looking for!”

“She’s been praying on the souls of people coming to the woods for solace. There used to be a temple out here, so people used to come looking to pray to spirits for prosperity and happiness. Over time, after the temple was destroyed, people still walked through these woods to help calm their spirits and minds, or still to pray to long forgotten gods. It would seem our friend here found out about that and decided it would be a good place to make camp,” Mystery explained quickly to Arthur, his hackles up.

“B-but, I-” Arthur began to sputter, stopping when Mystery shoot him a look.

“Nothing is worth what she would take, Arthur,” Mystery stated, leaving no room for argument as he bound after Vivi, the blue haired girl already shouting exorcisms at the demon as she chased it down with her trusty bat.

Arthur watched the two, rubbing at his robotic arm absently, a forlorn look on his face. “Lewis would have been worth it,” he murmured to himself as he began to follow after his friends.


End file.
